[ZombiePhysicist]

So I’m in the midst of designing my dream garage and was hoping to get some feed back/advice from others that have done the same. I initially have 2 questions, down below.

But I figured this might be a nice thread and knowledge repository of do’s and don’t for others over time.

If this thread grows I’ll turn it into an FAQ for suggestions that folks seem to agree on regarding a good garage design on things like:

1. Garage door/opener systems
2. Best flooring types
3. Lifts
4. Shelving/storage systems
5. Tools
6. Work benches/stations
7. Layout
8. Electrical facilities
9. Electronics
10. Temperature/environmental/HVAC/Filtration systems
11. Water facilities/systems (eg indoor car wash/detailing?)
12. etc.

Also, I’d love it if people used this to show off their garages, ideas, and examples of dream garages
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Here are some links to other threads that have interesting examples or info:

Garage condo pictures

A few members had asked that I post some pictures of my garage condo, so here you go. My condo is part of Iron Gate Motor Condos which is in Naperville, Illinois (a western suburb of Chicago). It is a relatively new project and is modeled after the AutoMotoPlex in Minnesota. The project will...

www.mclarenlife.com

Garage Location 1 of 3 complete

Finally - garage location 1 of 3 is complete after over a year of construction. Moved in some of the cars this past weekend. Family collection that will be housed at 3 different locations within 10 minutes of each other. Here are a few picture of some of the cars that have made it to the garage...

www.mclarenlife.com

Garage Car Lift Question

Does anybody here have a garage car lift - AND are able to have the Mc on the bottom (dihedral doors)? I'd like to store a lessor used garage queen above my McLaren - but don't know if opening and closing the doors would be possible... If you do have one and can open/close your doors while...

www.mclarenlife.com

Garage floor options

Hey guys, I saw AM's thread and it got me motivated to finally upgrade my garage floor. I am starting this thread just as a reminder to me and also to keep all the info I have read lately in one place. If you guys have redone your garage floors then please post any comments pics etc...

www.mclarenlife.com

looking for flooring ideas

Im finally getting around to working on my garage. Im looking for flooring ideas. We have a large size garage (Garage is 36' deep by 40' wide 1440 sqft) to work with so Im also getting bids on installing a drain so I can wash the cars without too much of a mess on the ground. I have seen a few...

www.mclarenlife.com

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Anyway, I’ll likely document my own journey here over some time, if there is an interest.
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For my particular setup we plan on having 3 regularly used cars. His, hers, and a truck. I think our garage will have 6 car “slots”. 3 cars wide, 2 cars deep. That way the main cars can always get in and out with little hassle. I also figure we may have some specialty vehicles, off road vehicles, maybe a track car, bikes, over time. Add into the mix, I know I will get at least one lift so I can work on a car (simple service stuff like oil/filter—and maybe build my own kit car as a fun hobby like the SCG 008). But maybe it makes sense to get 6 lifts and boost storage up to 12 cars?

Questions
1) My first question is, if you were building your dream garage, how many car slots would you build, and how much room would you allocate beyond that for tools, shelving, storage, maybe even a bit of office space?| Also what is a good “size” for a car slot (ie how many feet length by depth per slot makes sense to be comfortable but not wasteful)?

I’m thinking whatever the size I need for the 3x2 car slots, maybe size the garage with another 25% more space for shelves, equipment, etc? Curious if some of you allocated too much or too little space to your garage for things other than cars and if there is a good rule of thumb here.

2) What lift systems do you guys like the most?

If I recall, McMedics prefer 2 post vs 4 post lifts to do work on, but was wondering if there is a consensus on the best kinds of lifts, or particular brand/model that people really like. I may have a large Raptor or CyberTruck and not sure if there are lifts that could accommodate them below, much less on top.

Thanks for any ideas/suggestions.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

As far as flooring goes, do yourself a favor and SKIP RaceDeck or any other similar type flooring. It's trash.

Yea it seems the consensus is between epoxy (which has some peeling issues years on) and I think some kind of sealed polished cement that I’m not familiar with. At least from my skimming some threads.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Most folks seem to agree the 2 best options are between epoxy (which has a downside if your contractor isn’t great that it might peel in 3-5 years) and polished sealed cement (downside of which I hear is if it gets wet it is super slippery).

I haven’t heard of the porcelain tile option (I would worry about grout with tile but maybe it’s grout less tile)? I wonder if it’s slippery when wet. Thanks for the idea!

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

The loft is a must! You must be able to stand atop, with coffee or tea in hand, and look down at your achievements!

So you guys are saying it’s essentially a trophy room!

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Im wondering if you guys think it’s not a good idea to have lifts/work bench and a “trophy room” type garage with a loft etc? Are they antithetical. In my fuzzy imagination I think of McLaren clean room like factory workspace in that trophy room with lounge etc.

I was thinking of 6 slots , first row of 3 would be our daily cars (Mclaren, SCG, truck) and then behind it, 2 2-post lifts (one for DYI maintenance (oil/filter) and a 2nd for my project car (thinking about buying an SCG 008 and having a fun time to build it, but might be there for year or 2 depending on my time). And then one 4 post lift that could hold maybe a formula 3 track car and maybe some off road car that are less frequently used.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

I’m in the process of building a new house and the main purpose for this house is to have a show garage. I’ll try to answer your questions but realize I’m not building the garage for utility and a workshop but more as a showcase.

In light of that the house will have 2 garages. This first will be a regular 2 car garage for my wife and I for daily use. The second will be a show garage with a loft above that will serve as my office. I can comfortably put 6 cars in. Can probably squeeze in 8. We are not doing any lifts or work benches or tools as I want the space clean. There is a storage room where I can store all sorts of crap.

The 2 car garage will have a regular garage door but for the show garage we will be doing one of those glass sliders that you have in living rooms. We are going to motorize it so I can open it with a remote.

The entire space is going to be climate controlled so the cars will be in ac as my office is above. Now I have a glass wall between the garage and living area so when I’m sitting on my couch I can stare at my cars. And yes this is all wide approved. Because it’s somewhat connected, the flooring will be the same as the rest of the house- tile. So it’s a seamless floor from living area to garage to the back patio. No lifts as 8-10 cars total is more than enough but more I don’t want a cluttered look. Just outside the space I have a dedicated wash bay. Tried to make it part of garage but we didn’t have enough room as it’s on a hillside and we were encroaching our build envelope. Hope this helps and I can clarify anything if you need. Good luck designing the space.

Curious on the size of your office/lounge area there, and connections to your home.

One thing I absolutely require is that out garage, at least the practical one with fail drive cars connects to our pantry/kitchen. so when you bring groceries etc home, it’s right there to put things away. However, this prevents me from having a trophy room glass connection so you can see the cars say through a living room because I don’t want to walk through the living room to get to the kitchen.

Im not sure there is an easy solution to have all the above, other Than yours, which is to have 2 garages. One that practically attached to the kitchen pantry and another somehow tied to a living room? Even that’s tough for me to imagine a layout where all that works. But I see the appeal to peak at the cars as they are art pieces. But may need to content myself with a office/lounge area in the garage itself.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Well kinda of…

View attachment 225526


daily use garage on the right- show garage on left. Interior rendering. View attachment 225527 View attachment 225526

Wow that is stunning, thanks I see the court yard U design helps there with layout.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Your garage- design it as you see fit. Some folks love to work on their cars so lifts, tools, benches make sense. For me- I want clean, museum like. No lifts, tools anything. Personal preference.

Well I’m also building a barn, so I guess I could move work area in there and do more of a trophy style space…something to mull over.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Thanks. Still about 18 months away from completion. Long way to go. Here we are as of lat week.

View attachment 225528
View attachment 225529

Gorgeous hills and view. Congrats man that’s stunning. If you’re comfortable saying so, roughly where are you. It’s not LA I don’t think.

‘One of the designs we are considering would also cut into the hillside but leave some exposed limestone as a wall/gap with glass to feel like the rock is part of the house. But then i started to worry about water coming through. Nice to see others in the process.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Well I just finished the project of redoing my garage. I decided to go with Epoxy. I went with ArmorEpoxy ArmorUltra 100% solid 3 layer coating system. For a three car garage, the material was around $2k. Currently I own a contracting business, so I decided to take this on myself. It was quite the process and took more time than even I had thought, complicated by being a existing garage with the previous floor being stain that had to be ground off- boxing up everything on my shelves, hauling everything out into my driveway, only to be interrupted by one hurricane and one tropical storm. I also repainted 4x 8ft commercial metal shelves while I was at it. I finally finished about 2 weeks ago, and then gave it a good 10 days of final curing time. I decided to forgo the common colored flakes to give it a smooth shinny appearance. While the floor turned out great, not perfect but most of it I would only be the one to notice.

The product and company was first rate. Time will tell how it holds up, but the prep is the most important part of the finished product.
View attachment 225537 View attachment 225535

Looks fantastic. I have a friend who has epoxy for 10nm years now and his looks new. He added sand to his last layer for grip because his previous floor got too slippery when wet. His floor took the contractor 4-5 days to finish because of all the prep and number of layers used. He claims the flaking occurs when the contractors don’t know how to do it right, and don’t take the right amount of time. So maybe expertise is part of that flaking factor. But his floor does still look great, and so does yours. Well done!

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

I wouldn’t skip the flakes in an epoxy floor since they help conceal imperfections in the slab.

What about sand in the final layer for grip, or will that also conceal?

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

I’m also in the middle of building a 6 car detached garage/man cave and have given a lot of thought to flooring. While I’m not ready for the flooring install yet (just took out 30, 16ton truck loads of dirt to clear the space), I’ve decided on porcelain tile. Epoxy seems to be the popular choice...but mine will be more of a show garage with a small lounge area. Terrazzo would be nice but it’s silly expensive. Porcelain gives it that high end car dealership feel/look and is extremely durable as well. Epoxy is nice but it’s too common and colored concrete fades and wears...IMHO.

Either way...frustratingly fun times...

If you settle on a brand/model of tile that you like, and are comfortable sharing it, would appreciate it. Good luck with your build. Yea, these are high rent and wonderful 'problems' to have.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Some interesting ideas here:

Supercar "Batcave" Features Movie Tribute Cars, Arcade Games, And More

A private collection of Kapow Racing features everything that a person could want in a garage, including rare vehicles and various forms of recreation.

www.motor1.com